1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the transmission of data between electronic machines through file transfers in internet and intranet systems and, more particularly, to file structures that include picture or photo formats as well as functional objects, text, media content, and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
A major use for the modern internet or intranet systems is the transfer and exchange of files between individuals who may be separated by thousands of mile or merely the wall of adjacent offices in the same building. In the most common form of this transaction, one individual composes an email and attaches a file to the email. The attached file may be a photo, audio or video, data, or other similar type of file. Such files may be quite large compared to the few bytes of the email words themselves. Thus it is commonplace to have email attachments that are many megabytes in size. The email is sent as a combination of the message and attachment, and the large combined file may necessitate significant upload time for the sender and considerable download time for the recipient.
Even if the email bears a thumbnail image of the file, the recipient must often download the file to review it and determine if it is worth reading, viewing, or keeping. Thus the time required to carry out the downloading of attached files may be wasted if the documents thus obtained are not desired. Yet there is no provision in the prior art for apprising the recipient of the file contents, other than downloading and reading it. This flaw in email systems as presently constituted not only wastes bandwidth of the network, it also fills too much of a server's memory with files that would not have been transmitted if their content had been transmitted and reviewed first.
Furthermore, network systems are too often vulnerable to malicious software such as viruses and worms, and these are frequently propagated as attachments to email messages. As a simple defensive measure, many recipients have adopted the habit of not opening any attachment, or email with an attachment, unless the sender is known to the recipient. The result has been that some fraction of authentic email traffic is not received or not read by the recipient, and the overall efficiency of the communications system is correspondingly diminished in comparison to the ideal situation in which all legitimate communications are successfully delivered to all intended recipients.